Various forms of Schottky rectifiers and their manners of operation are discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,567 to B. J. BALIGA. Essentially, such rectifiers are fabricated from a first semiconductor N+ substrate layer having a metal cathode contact on one surface and a second epitaxially grown semiconductor - layer on its opposite surface. The second - layer acts as the drift region and typically has discrete P+ regions located in its opposite surface in the drift region. A metal anode contact is formed on the opposite surface of the second - layer and metal/semiconductor junctions form Schottky contact regions between the P+ regions. As noted in the Patent, the lowered operating voltages presently required for reduced power consumption and increased energy efficiency call for a decreased on-state voltage drop across the rectifier while maintaining high forward-biased current density levels and minimizing the reverse-biased leakage current. However, in Schottky barrier rectifiers there is a tradeoff between the forward-biased voltage drop and the reverse-biased leakage current so that it is difficult to minimize both at the same time. The doping level in the semiconductor region is used to affect the Schottky barrier height, but, while the use of a higher the doping level lowers the forward-biased voltage drop, it also lowers the reverse-biased breakdown level because of impact ionization.